Gibson T-Top´s

MrRhoads · Post by **MrRhoads** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 10:04 pm

Anyone who has any idea or suggestion as to what kind of Ohm reading Randy´s T-Top´s in his Les Paul could have been?

ptate · Post by **ptate** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:26 am

Gibson had moved away from the original scatterwound pups by then and had automated the process, so most of their standard T-tops were within the 7.2 to 7.6 ohm range.

MrRhoads · Post by **MrRhoads** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:32 am

What i´ve read Gibson didn´t start the automated process until 1975 and Rand´s Les Paul was built before that, in 1974.
http://www.provide.net/~cfh/paf.html there´s the page i´ve read some and i got the link from a Gibson official.
I´ve seen T-Tops reading as much as 8.6kOhm but i agree that Randys T-Tops would be around 7,2-7,6 maybe slightly more on the bridge but no more since his Les Paul didn´t drive his gear that hard at all.

MrRhoads · Post by **MrRhoads** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:45 am

My bad, i´m sorry got things mixed up. The automated processs did start earlier between 1965-1968 and after 1968 they we´re consistent at 7.5kOhm give or take 0.25.

ptate · Post by **ptate** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:51 pm

Cheers man.......

I sold a set of late 60's T-tops to a Canadian guy a couple of years ago and they sat at 7.6-7.8 ohms. I also researched them a great deal before I bought them (plus my mate is a vintage Les Paul specialist- which helped).

They only changed the windings (wire type and magnet strengths predominantly) later on to help with guitarists wanting a bit more output in their playing.

T-tops have a bad name, but RR used them as did Mr Page; so they can't be that bad........

MrRhoads · Post by **MrRhoads** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:09 pm

Well i guess the name comes from the "T" on the bobbins.
They´re a little brighter than normal pickup but when i crank my amp i get added bass and still i prefer brighter and lower output.
Angus Young is suppoused to have T-Tops in his old SG as well.
Oh, i guess you mean bad reputation..
Well sometimes some pickups or other gear is hard to use but it´s always worth to do alot of tweaking and testing

If a person want´s ubelivable amounts of gain a low output pickup is great since it will stay clean, clear and articulate, not turn into mush like a high output pickup could do unless it´s a good one.

Post by **The Flying Dutchman** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:19 pm

Found lots of info about the Gibson PAF here: http://www.provide.net/~cfh/paf.html

ptate · Post by **ptate** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:56 pm

Very good site that for all Les Paul related topics. been around for many years has Mr Gruhn..

As for the PAF it is a different animal from the T-top as it was effectively hand-made (hence the resale value of an undisturbed one..!!).

Early T-tops are the machine-made incarnation of the PAF, with the "T" either standing for treble or top (of the bobbin- never defined). Very good pups. However, the stated rating is based on the output at the time. With magnet deterioration etc. they vary quite a lot.